Kelley A E, Lang C G, Gauthier A M
Department of Psychology, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA 02138.
Psychopharmacology (Berl). 1988;95(4):556-9. doi: 10.1007/BF00172976.
Amphetamine and other psychostimulant drugs induce perseverative motor behavior in rodents, such as compulsive sniffing, licking and biting. Although it is known that this behavior, termed stereotypy, is a consequence of dopaminergic stimulation of the striatum, the precise localization of the site of activation is unclear. It is reported here that microinjection of amphetamine (20 micrograms/0.5 microliter) into a circumscribed subregion of the striatum specifically produces intense oral stereotypy. It is proposed that this region, which corresponds to a small area within the ventrolateral striatum, contains motor circuitry critical to oral behavior, including feeding. The behavior elicited by amphetamine-induced stimulation of this area may represent a simple animal model in which to study certain orofacial dyskinesias.
